


Spectacular

by xxx_cat_xxx



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Glasses, Irondad, Pepper Potts is always right, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark is an old Man, spiderson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-22
Updated: 2019-03-22
Packaged: 2019-11-27 19:49:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18198563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xxx_cat_xxx/pseuds/xxx_cat_xxx
Summary: Peter Parker has a special mission: buying reading glasses for Tony, who, of course, doesn't need them at all.





	Spectacular

**Author's Note:**

> Since my last story reportedly made people cry, I tried hard to write something happy this time, namely domestic Tony/Pepper & Peter. It's horribly fluffy, don’t get used to it.
> 
> Thank you to @awesomesockes for all the ideas and to @whumphoarder for beta-reading.

“Tony, I need you to read this.” Pepper steps into the room, the tell-tale clicking of her heels accompanying her. She holds a manila folder out to Tony.

“Yeah, put it down over there, I’ll look at it later,” the engineer replies, barely glancing up from the wires he’s fiddling with under a magnifying glass. “And toss me the Advil bottle from the cupboard, will ya?”

“You´re burning through these way too fast,” Pepper observes while setting the nearly empty bottle on the table in front of him. “Exactly how light are these ‘light headaches’ you’ve been getting?”

Tony ignores her in favour of throwing down two painkillers in a fluid motion. He massages his closed eyes with his thumb and index finger, a scrunched look on his face, before blinking hard a few times and focusing back on the magnifying glass. None of this escapes Pepper’s notice.

“I want you to look at that document for me,” she orders. “Now.”

“Can’t I have one hour to work in peace? Put it on the table over there…”

“Don’t have FRIDAY scan it and read it out loud. You pulled that trick on Peter yesterday, it won’t work with me.”

“He told you that?” Tony huffs. “Think I’m gonna have to fire him.”

“Technically, he’s an intern of Stark Industries, which happens to be a company controlled by me, so decisions about his contract are under my jurisdiction. Now read that out to me.”

“Sometimes I feel like it was a mistake to promote you,” Tony grumbles. “You’re getting too used to being in power.”

He takes the sheet of paper from the folder and squints at it. Then he pushes it away at arm’s length and squints even harder. “You know that I can’t read French, right?”

“It’s English, Tony.” Pepper snatches the document out of his hand. “And you just proved my point. You have an appointment with the optician this afternoon.”

“That’s ridiculous. I don’t need reading glasses. I’ve got Friday, I’ve got you and the kid. I’m totally fine to work without _prosthesis_ ,” he argues. “Oh, fuck.”

One of the wires under his fingers has started to spark. He uses the sleeve of his already grease-stained sweatshirt to extinguish it.

“3:00 pm, Friday knows the address,” Pepper continues. “You should take a shower before you show yourself in public. Oh, and Peter will be accompanying you.”

“I- what? Pep, that’s not fair!”

“I’ve got a meeting. And the boy has certain skills that he promised to use in order to ensure you won’t sneak out of the shop. Thank me later.” Pepper gives him a sweet, deceptively innocent smile. She presses a kiss onto the clean side of his cheeks before turning around and walking off.

“You’re an evil, evil woman, Miss Potts,” Tony mutters as he watches her leave.

*

“I look old. I’m not old, Pete.”

Peter only offers an exasperated sigh, biting back the very tempting ‘Yes, you are’ that’s sitting on the tip of his tongue.

It’s early evening. There’s a heap of discarded frames the size of a small iceberg next to Tony. The third shop assistant attending to them this day is trying to mask her growing desperation while two others are snoring behind the counter.

“They look just like your sunglasses, Mr. Stark, and you never have a problem wearing them.”

Peter had been delighted when Pepper had called him for a “special mission” the other day, looking forward to spending time with Tony outside the workshop. But he probably should have guessed from the hint of guilt in Pepper’s eyes that this was not going to be an easy mission.

“It’s not the same. These aren’t sunglasses, and I _know_ it. I can feel the difference.”

“That’s sort of the point, isn’t it?”

“Don’t be a smartass, kid.” Tony’s tired eyes narrow at Peter, which would be sort of threatening if it weren’t for the bright purple spectacles currently balanced on his nose.

“I told you, I liked those simple black frames, but you said they were too ooooordinary,” Peter pronounces, stretching out the vowel as he breaks into a yawn.

“Hmm. Maybe I’ll try those again,” Tony deliberates, then looks a little helplessly at the startling number of discarded models surrounding him. “Uhm, where did I put them?”

While the shop assistant jumps in to prevent Tony from further increasing the chaos, Peter gets up from the chair to stretch his legs. He tries on a pair of half-moon glasses and stands in front of the mirror.

“Those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it,“ he imitates in a deep voice, then pauses when something catches his eye.

“Oh wow, they still make these!” he blurts out, dropping the Dumbledore frames and striding over to the kids’ section.

On a small, colourfully-painted rack, a number of superhero-themed glasses are displayed. There’s a pair with small wings on each side that look like miniature versions of those mounted on Thor’s helmet, one with stars all over the frame in Captain-America themed colours, and a red one with golden screws that remotely resembles the Iron Man armour. Below all of them, there’s a pair of specs with the unmistakable pattern of a spider web crisscrossing the red and blue frame.

“They made Spider-Man glasses,” Peter whispers, completely awe-struck.

“I know I said I’m not old, but I’m definitely too old for _those_ ,” Tony remarks from behind his shoulder. Peter turns around. There’s a sober-looking black framed pair sitting on his mentor’s nose and a nearly identical one shoved up to his forehead. A third pair of glasses is dangling from his fingers.

“No, it’s just-” Peter steps away from the shelf, suddenly a little embarrassed.

“It’s just what? The stunning ability of capitalism to churn out endless variations of the very same product in order to convince customers they’re buying something different? The marketisation of people with special powers?”

“Not - not exactly.” Peter blinks, slightly confused.

“So?”

“I used to wear these when I was little,” Peter admits, pointing at the Iron Man frame. “Before the bite, my eyesight was so bad that I couldn’t even make out my own toes when I was standing. I got my first glasses when I was three, and I guess it’s easier to convince a kid to wear them when you can claim that they give him superpowers. At least that’s what my aunt used to tell me.”

“Superpowered glasses? Well, that’s….spectacular.” Tony raises his eyebrows in a mocking gesture, but his expression goes a little soft. “I guess my father could have learned something from your aunt’s parenting skills.”

He turns away before Peter can think of something to say.

“Come here, kid,” Tony calls over his shoulder. “I’ve compiled a top ten, if you wanna give me a hand…”

*

A few days later, Dum-E and U get into an argument that ends with U setting a bunch of papers on fire in an attempt to offer an apology to Dum-E, who extinguishes the flames with loud chirps of joy. When Tony skims through the smoldering remains of the documents, the one Pepper gave him to read falls into his hands.

With a grimace, he pulls the newly-acquired reading glasses from the explosion-proof safe in which Peter has deposited them with admirable foresight.

In the middle of the paper, one sentence is written in tiny letters: “Proof that Pepper Potts always knows best.”


End file.
